Adventure begins at Sugarloaf!

Living in Maine you see Sugarloaf bumper stickers everywhere, and I was excited for my first visit!  It was August so no snow or crowds, but it was nice to get the opportunity to come for a few days and meet a group of passionate educators doing great things throughout Maine.

We were introduced to the team at Educate Maine and they explained the history of the Education Leaders Experience (ELE) program and some of the key players that started it more than ten years ago.  The program was created by Unum and it is administered by Educate Maine, Thomas College and the Maine Principals Association.  

Our group is called the "Kappa" class as we are the tenth group to go through the program.  Joining on the adventure are 30 "classmates".  They gave us a class directory which gave us some insight into all the various roles in education that the group has covered which includes: early childhood, K-12, Higher Ed.  

We have two days of fascinating presentations, in these we learn more about the program and what we will do throughout the year.  

I won't attempt to sum all of that up, however I wanted to share a few lightbulb moments that stuck with me:


Jim Boothby, Maine School Superintendent for RSU 25, who had participated in the program a few years back talked about partnerships and how school leaders tend to think that a partnership means a school leader goes to local businesses with their hand out and that the school is the one getting all the benefits.  However, this is flawed thinking.  In order to recruit and retain talented employees to come to work in their businesses, businesses need strong schools.  Employees want to live and work in areas that have good public schools.  So businesses that are partnering to make schools stronger are enhancing their ability to bring in quality employees in the long term-both sides will benefit from the partnership!

With regard to partnerships, Nate Wildes, the Executive Director of Live and Work in Maine gave the advice to; work with the willing! There simply isn't enough time in the day, so for those that show interest and want to collaborate, work with them!

The leaders drill into our heads to show up at all the events throughout the year and we all leave with the best intention to do just that! Our goal is to take away all the great knowledge and get to know our classmates better as the year unfolds.




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